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Indonesian billionaire businessman Aburizal Bakrie speaks to senior high school students during a roadshow in Tangerang outskirt of Jakarta.

Reuters: Matthew Bigg

Indonesia's second biggest political party is standing behind its candidate Aburizal Bakrie for next year's presidential election.

This despite fears among some members that the controversial tycoon is far too unpopular among voters to stand any chance of winning.

Most opinion polls show that the Golkar party chairman would win less than 10 per cent of the vote in July.

Party lawmakers acknowledge they have their work cut out to get the wealthy businessman into the presidential palace.

Political analyst Hermawan Sulistyo from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences says Mr Bakrie's image of being a very successful business mogul doesn't go very far with regular voters.

"He's a liability for Golkar, which otherwise would get pretty good support in legislative elections," he said.

However, legislators says they expect their party to do well enough in April's parliamentary election to have a powerful voice in who will next lead the world's third largest democracy.

Presidential candidates must have the backing of a party, or parties, with at least 20 per cent of the seats in parliament or 25 per cent of the national vote for parliament.

Golkar won 14.45 per cent of the 2009 votes for parliament, and just over 19 per cent of the seats.

A senior Golkar MP Tantowi Yahya says Golkar is one of the biggest and oldest parties.

"We're targeting 33 per cent or 186 seats in parliament next year," he said.

Golkar under Suharto

Golkar became the parliamentary rubber stamp of the long authoritarian rule of former general Suharto, who rose to power in 1965 and ruled until he was forced to step down in 1998, dragging down with him the fortunes of the party he created.

The party made use of its organisational reach across the archipelago to rebuild its standing even though many of its ageing leaders owe their political rise to Suharto.

Suharto's rule became a byword for the graft that made Indonesia one of the world's most corrupt nations, a label it has been trying to shake off after 15 years of democracy.